If you hear the story of Fraele Valley, a couple of thoughts might come to your mind when you walk around its lakes. Within ‘clock’s reach’, things weren’t the same. An entire village of peasants, shepherds, merchants sank into the artificial turquoise when the dams were erected.
Antique routes, immemorial paths and exchanges between men and women went under water for ever. A primordial life of wars and peaces had been streaming here for long; enemies and friends had been crucially using those passes to meet and redefine each other. Now, what remains of houses, a church, a tavern and a shelter for wayfarers is an ambiguous feeling. Might these waters – with their non-lunar tides – be the only keeper of a secret they themselves made? Might there be the myth of life only when that life is dead? Might the oblivion be the only way to remember?
These pictures were taken between winter 2015 and spring 2016, showing two different seasons of the valley and its ever-changing waters. The location is Valdidentro, Northern Italy.
